“At no point did I suggest that we should embrace back rooms,” he said, adding that he was telling the reporter about the ideas proffered by columnist Fareed Zakaria.

Unfortunately, the Post‘s report is a thinly veiled attempt to cover for Hick and doesn’t make clear that Hick is completely contradicting himself. As Complete Colorado’s Todd Shepherd pointed out, the Post even rewrote its headline to soften the blow to the governor.

We doubt 9News’ Kyle Clark would have let Hick get away with such a denial. But, then again, Denver Post Publisher and Hickenlooper buddy Dean Singleton doesn’t own 9News.